Is It Too Late to Invest in Bitcoin in 2017? Can I Make Money With Bitcoin?

The same question appeared back in 2015 and 2016. I bet another person will ask the same next year. Since I am asked by one of the readers whether is it too late to invest in Bitcoin in 2017, my short answer to this is No. “Can I still make money with Bitcoin?”, Definitely.

Disclaimer: The content below should not be taken and viewed as investment advice, but only information and opinions. This article is for information and illustrative purposes only. Also visit my website, in which you can find yorkie puppies for sale el paso tx.

Is It Too Late to Invest in Bitcoin in 2017?

Although there are many other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, Litecoin, Siacoin, and Stratis, Bitcoin still remains one of the most watched and speculated currencies of all time. Bitcoin has been one of the most amazing currencies to watch in the history of mankind.

Not only that, if you look at fiat currencies, Bitcoin has outperformed the US dollar by almost 50 percent, Bitcoin surpassed the growth of the Mexican Peso, Silver, Gold and Russian Ruble to become the best performing currency so far in 2017.

There are several factors why it is not too late to invest in Bitcoin in 2017.

#1 Bitcoin could hit $100,000 in 10 years, says the analyst who correctly called its $2,000 price

Back in 2016, a report from Saxo Bank claims the price of Bitcoin could hit more than $2,000 in 2017. When the report was published, Bitcoin was trading at $750 and it hit $2,000 in May 2017.

In May 2017, the same analyst predicted that Bitcoin could hit $100,000 in 10 years time. Of course, the prediction was made based on a rough estimation. However, we all know that cryptocurrencies are going to survive for a very long time, especially Bitcoin.

The Philippines and Japan legalized Bitcoin and its businesses in their respective regions. Japan passed to accept Bitcoin as a legal payment method and two major Japanese retailers partnered with Japanese Bitcoin exchanges to start accepting the digital currency for payments.

Some of Japan’s largest retail giants including Bic Camera, which hold a massive influence over the Japanese technology and consumer markets, began to accept Bitcoin payments at their locations. Full article here.

Furthermore, the Indian government announced the likelihood of a regulatory framework for Bitcoin being implemented by 2018. On June 20, CNBC India announced that the Indian government committee has ruled in favor of regulating Bitcoin and is currently establishing a task force to create various regulatory frameworks with the aim of fully legalizing Bitcoin in the short-term.

Let’s look at the U.S, The US dollar currently makes up for 46% of Bitcoin exchange volume by currency, far greater than any other currency. On September 17, 2015, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) classified Bitcoin as a commodity. Full article here.

Bitcoin has a capped supply of the Bitcoin that can actually be released into the network. Mining today is certainly easier than it will be tomorrow and then so forth. If Demand is more tomorrow than it is today, the value shall be higher for supply is consistent.

The current trend is suggesting that more people, government, companies are adopting Bitcoin today than yesterday. That simply means the demand is rising over time.

#3 Bitcoin is going to be part of our lives

Bitcoin or BTC is the first content type on the Bitcoin blockchain. Think of it like the Internet. Email, as great as it has been, is only one type of content that the Internet can carry.

People were first very skeptical about the Internet and didn’t believe at all that Commerce and business will shift from offices and malls to networks and modems, an instant catalog shopping–just point and click for great deals, and buying air tickets over the network.

See what’s going with our lives now. The Internet was the first, and the most immediately useful, and still used to this day. Most importantly, most people can’t live without it.

Similarly to Bitcoin, it will not be stopped. Governments can’t stop it, institutions can’t stop it, even if the encryption gets compromised, a new algorithm will be put into effect to nullify that attack.

People who invest do not invest in what Bitcoin is now but invests in what it can turn into over te next 5-6 years. Bitcoin is not just an investment – It’s a Movement! A movement to the worldwide financial freedom.

#4 Bitcoin is limited

In March 2017, The price of one Bitcoin surpassed the price of an ounce of gold for the first time in history.

Gold is rare, Bitcoin is much rare because there is a limited amount of it that can come into existence. The number of bitcoins in existence will never exceed 21 million.

By design, a total of 21 million Bitcoins will be created over 100 years according to a logarithmic release function. At the time of writing, just over 13 million bitcoins are in circulation, meaning that an additional 8 million bitcoins will be mined over the next 95 years.

With increased usage and wider adoption of Bitcoin, the demand for Bitcoins is always increasing. This is crucial to understand because whenever supply is restricted, and demand is high, the price goes up.

#5 Bitcoin is the most practical payment method available

Bitcoin is a digital currency that can be used to send and receive money. The transaction can be completed regardless of where the parties involved are located, and it is done almost instantaneously.

Apart from that, sending and receiving money using Bitcoin is both cheap and safe – the network makes the middleman obsolete, which in turn lowers the cost of the transaction, and there is practically no chance for the sender to turn out to be a counterfeiter.

Bitcoin is likely no different than accepting payment in other forms, such as cash, or gold, or scrip, or gift cards or foreign currency.

When you pay a cheque from another bank into your bank, the bank will often hold that money for several days, because it can’t trust that the funds are really available. Similarly, international wire transfers can take a relatively long time. Bitcoin transactions, however, are generally far faster.

#6 Bitcoin has advantages over other digital currencies

When you look at the list of cryptocurrencies that are currently available in the market right now, it is a long list of them. Some say Ethereum and Ripple to surpass Bitcoin in term of its market capitalization. If they are going to surpass the market cap, that doesn’t really mean anything.

The trading of Bitcoin is very simple. Buying requires a credit or debit or Paypal or a bank account. It is that simple. These are facilitating platforms that allow for easily buying Bitcoins such as Bitquick, Blockchain etc. Transferring these Bitcoins to other users is also easy. But care has to be given during such transfer. This is because as highlighted in the succeeding reason the transfer is irreversible.

Bitcoin has gained too much popularity and there is no comparison with other digital currencies. That is why the difference between the value of a Bitcoin and any other currency is very high. Major difference that has given Bitcoin an edge over all other digital currencies is the fact that Bitcoin is decentralized (e.g. Ripple is centralized).

There is no agency or government controlling Bitcoins. All other digital currencies are associated with some owner or group. Decentralization of Bitcoins makes possessors of Bitcoins feel safe and sound. They don’t have to be dependent on any third party or agency while transferring their Bitcoins. Nor do they have to pay large transaction fees. They are also protected against Bank Insolvency.

It is because of decentralization of Bitcoin, that no country can say it is their currency, no matter where the Bitcoins have been mined. As such Bitcoin is called global currency since it doesn’t belong to any one country. So if you invest in Bitcoins, you are not investing in any foreign currency.

#7 Bitcoin is almost unhackable

SHA256 is a special type of mathematical function which is really easy to solve in one direction but is very hard to solve in reverse. At least the only known way to solve SHA256 is reverse is very hard. It’s extremely expensive to conduct a hack on the network as the computing resources required to do so are immense.

In 2010, an entrepreneur, Wences Casares was very skeptical about Bitcoin and hired a team to hack the system but failed. Since then, he became a big fan of Bitcoin and he is currently the CEO of the Bitcoin wallet Xapo.

Considering all the advantages of trading in Bitcoin, we are still at the beginning era of cryptocurrency. As you can see, there is a huge potential ahead of us.

More countries are yet to be exposed to Bitcoin awareness, Trillions of consumers across the globe are yet to start purchasing Bitcoins and using them. The statistics show that all this is going on in a positive direction which itself means a clear BUY for this digital currency as a long-term investment.

A prediction made by Jeremy Liew and Peter Smith (the first investor in Snapchat and the co-founder and CEO of Blockchain) states that the Bitcoin network will grow 61-fold from now until 2030 (around 400 million total users). With a huge increase in electronic money transfers, which have almost doubled worldwide over the past 15 years. It’s a huge and growing market for Bitcoin. Both expect the major catalyst for growth will be greater Bitcoin awareness, along with the growing overall market.

Source: http://data.worldbank.org

Of all the reasons above, it is not entirely late to buy Bitcoin today at all.

Can I Make Money With Bitcoin?

There are many ways to make money with Bitcoin.

NOTE: I would like to emphasize here that there are many high-yield investment programs (Ponzi) on the Internet that tries to steal your hard-earned money by promising you a lucrative return on BTC.

First of all, you need to have a plan. Be it a day-trading, trying to pay off student loans or trying to retire, you need to know what you want from Bitcoin.

Since the price of Bitcoin can fluctuate so much depending on market demand, setting a clear goal with tangible values will help investors decide when to stay in the game and when to cash out.

For myself, the best approach in cryptocurrency investment is Systematic Investment Plan (SIP).

SIP is basically a strategy that you invest a regular sum of money at a regular interval without worrying about the actual price of the digital asset. So instead of spending $1,000 upfront you basically decide some amount say $50 or $100 and invest this amount every month in buying Bitcoin.

In short, you buy Bitcoin, keep them for a long time, don’t do daily trade, and ignore the news.

As I am not a professional trader and I don’t stare at my screen 24/7, I don’t daily trade with Bitcoin as the commissions are high and I am easily emotionally influenced by news or analysis I read every now and then.

How to Store Your Bitcoin Safely?

Although you get a free wallet from most Bitcoin exchanges, it is not the safest place to keep your Bitcoin because they are still a centralized exchange and store all the private keys in their database. This makes them vulnerable to hackers, especially since they have millions stored in their wallets.

If you are long enough in the world of cryptocurrency, you might have heard about the incident of Mt.Gox hack. They were handling more than 70% of all the Bitcoin transactions worldwide. In February 2014, Mt. Gox suspended trading, closed its website and exchange service. Worst of all, they filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors. They allegedly lost $350 million in Bitcoin (7444,400 BTC).

That simply means when you had a balance at Mt. Gox, you didn’t really have Bitcoin because you didn’t actually own the private key. However, you were promised that Bitcoin would be delivered when a withdrawal was executed.

In short, if you don’t own the private keys, you don’t own the Bitcoin.

Hence, if you own a lot of Bitcoin with cryptocurrency exchanges, you are better off investing in a hardware wallet such as Ledger Nano S.

Alex is the owner of Managing Your Finance. He helps newbies start their own online businesses. Sign up for his 7-Day Free training course and learn how to start making a sustainable income online and quit your 9-to-5 job.

12 Responses

I have seen a lot of mixed reviews about bitcoin, some people love it and stand by it while others say some not so good things. I must say I do think this is one of the more in-depth descriptions I have run into and I think you did the best job I have seen of explaining what Bitcoin is and how it works. I have always been interested in Bitcoin.

Since the price of Bitcoin is bearish right now, I have decided to buy some. Thanks for the Coinbase link and I receive the free Bitcoin from you. Thanks a million.

I bought Bitcoins just one year ago when it was $650. I asked the same question whether it was too late to buy Bitcoins for investment. Looking at the price today and the profit I have made so far, I can certainly say Bitcoin is still worth buying today. Seeing how the public, companies, and countries have slowly accepted it, I have strong confidence in Bitcoin. I bought my Bitcoin through eToro and I didn’t know about Coinbase. Thanks for the link and thanks for the free Bitcoin!

It’s amazing to me that something I had only heard about here and there, is now coming up in everyday conversation. Do you think Bitcoin has the power to become the only currency in all countries?

That may sound like a stupid question, but based off of what you’ve said here, I wonder if it may be true. Even if we still had the typical country of origin enthused currencies, I think Bitcoin could become the most widely accepted currency on Earth. Think of the convenience!

Bitcoin will never be a substitute for fiat. Bitcoin is a useful way of moving money across international borders, and that will likely be its main application over the next several years. It can only be a “tool” that enables financial phenomena that have never existed before.

One of the biggest barriers that it has to overcome is the general acceptance of Bitcoin being safe and stable as there is no government regulating it, unlike most currencies.

Bitcoin! My favorite crypto and it never fails me. It is never too late to buy Bitcoin if you know it is going to reach $10,000 and even $100,000 one day. It is just a matter of time. I bought Bitcoin when it was just $250. Look at the price today! I never regret it!

Coinbase! Yes, it is also one of my favorites as I just received my free BTC from you! Thanks Alex!

There are several criteria when it comes to choosing the right cryptocurrency to invest such the team who is running the projects, their roadmaps, who is backing them up, the likelihood of going into the mainstream and etc.

Thanks for the great info on Bitcoin. I agree that having a hardware wallet for security as well as a free wallet – preferably accompanied by a Bitcoin Card – for the day-to-day expenses is a great way to keep your BTC safe.

Thanks for the free BTC from the above link.

What is your opinion on Ethereum? Do you believe it is worth investing in?